East Midlands rockers call time on their band with a compilation album to celebrate their music
PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF FOR US WHO ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH YOU AND YOUR MUSIC AND TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF.
We are Prime, a rock band with indie and blues influence from the East Midlands. We worked live in this area and all throughout the country for the last five years, and I decided to end the group as a live act at the close of 2019. We were meant to do our last tour in Spring 2020 but the Coronavirus put the dampeners to that idea... So this compilation that we have out on CD right now called “Art/Facts” and our final two singles will be the end for Prime before we move on to pastures new.
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR NEW ALBUM ‘ART/FACTS’?
We got a new release out now called 'Art/Facts' and it's a CD digipak and online release, compiling singles ‘In Summer’, ‘Bye Bye’ and ‘To Be Or Not To Be’ along with some rare tracks.
WHAT INSPIRED THE ALBUM?
Just the chance to compile everything we’ve done in one place. In terms of what inspired the music? Real life stories of life and love, observations and also, in the older material, interesting tales and fantasy situations. It’s all based on what I’ve seen in the world.
CAN YOU SUM UP THE ALBUM IN A FEW WORDS?
Rock with a whole lot of stylistic variety.
WHAT RECORD CHANGED YOUR LIFE AND WHY?
David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars album opened up a whole new world of music to me, and an outlook that would make my life never the same again. Stealing my dad's album was the best thing I ever did.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEO FILMED BY YOUR BAND OR ANOTHER ARTIST?
The first thing that came in my head by another artist was Prince's ‘Cream’... Jeez what a sexy video that is. In terms of ours, ‘In Summer’ brings back very happy memories of hanging out with Kieran Hill and James Alick, and Bad Friday, our video director who did a great job, probably the best of the series of videos he did for us including 'Bye Bye' and 'IOU'. We also got to hang out in the sun that day which is never a bad thing!
WHAT WOULD WE FIND YOU DOING WHEN YOU'RE NOT MAKING MUSIC?
Well at the moment I’m not making music! I’m stuck in Lockdown and I’m working on a computer making calls from home to earn some money so that when my next creative project is up and running I can focus all of my time on it. I'm also writing film screenplays that I'm looking forward to finishing now I've handed my notice in at the office.
DO YOU GET NERVOUS PERFORMING LIVE, IF SO HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT?
I’m sure I did at one point, starting out… I can certainly recall a few shaky moments in the men’s room before playing pub gigs in my early 20’s. But recently, the main thing was panicking through lack of time rushing to venues if the driver was late, or not getting a vocal warmup, which is never ideal.
HOW DID YOU FORM THE BAND?
Prime started as a studio project in 2014, after I advertised for musicians in local shops in Nottingham city centre and online, and then we began playing live properly early 2015 once we had a settled lineup. It was a slow process, but we got there in the end, and became a really good live band with time.
HOW DO YOU WRITE? - DO YOU HAVE A KEY SONGWRITER, OR DO YOU ALL WORK TOGETHER?
After years of writing lyrics whilst watching the guys jam songs with me working as a guide, and sometimes co-writing material with our guitarists, I now run Prime (UK Band) as the main songwriter alongside my excellent guitarist and co-singer Chris D Bramley, who has some very good material of his own. I write my songs, and Chris writes his, and it seems to work.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Living life and people in the music world who are creative and very inventive.
WHAT IS NEXT?
Well, after we played our last show in front of 700 people at the Winding Wheel, Chesterfield at a mess of a gig with lots of sound problems on March 7th, and also played Notts TV that same night, I decided that the band would be no more: Apart from some new material that we are finishing off in RatCat Studios in Nottingham. Chris and I are pretty excited about the last recordings and I think there are lots of nods to rock history in there, and it's the perfect way for Prime to go out.
PLEASE TELL US ANY SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS SO WE CAN SHARE.
Prime (UK Band) 'Art / Facts' Playlist out now:
open.spotify.com/album/2GocqlOhEgW5hoL4exwxrJ
Prime (UK Band) CD Digipak 'Art/Facts' out now:
prime4.bandcamp.com/album/art-facts-2014-2018-cd-digipak-pre-order-uk-postal-price
Official Prime (UK Band) 'In Summer' Music Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaZO5ZiFWA4
www.facebook.com/ukprime
www.primeband.co.uk